Systems for presenting a list of items, such as email messages, are generally well known. Typically, only a small portion of text associated with these items is displayed in the list itself. If a user wishes to view more information, the user must select one of the items to display additional information in a separate area.
Often times, messages may be related, but appear scattered as separated items, making it difficult for a user to follow a complete discussion. Furthermore, in typical systems, a user wishing to mark a message for a particular action, such as urgent or delete, must move to a different area of the screen in order to accomplish this.
There are many situations in which people would like to view extended amounts of text, but are limited by the amount of display area or “screen real estate” available to them. For example, a user looking at a list of items might want to see or preview the detailed content text of one of the items, without looking to or covering up other areas of the display.
Another problem is that a user wishing to follow a discussion must sort through a list of scattered messages. This can make it difficult for users to locate related items, to notice if an issue raised in a message has already been handled by someone else, or to follow a discussion at all. This can be particularly difficult when using a portable device with a small display as there is less opportunity to see related items in a large displayed list. Furthermore, due to difficulties in entering text on many such devices, the cost of responding to a message that has already been handled by someone else is high.
Another problem is that conventional systems require a user wishing to mark an item for later action to move the cursor to a different region of the display or use keyboard controls. This is especially problematic in situations where screen real estate is limited, such as with handheld portable devices.
Other limitations and problems also exist.